Tuesday 7 August 2012 12.26 EDT
First published on Tuesday 7 August 2012 12.26 EDT

A lifetime of exhaustive training, blood, sweat and tears, learning from highs and lows, relationship sacrifices and time away from the ones you love most while you travel the world seeking competition all go into one Olympic Games. Then you get your one chance – one shot at putting all of this dedication together, to create an achievement you would be proud of. The gun goes and you're off and racing, using the skills you have honed to give you the best start, using the biomechanics you spend hours and hours researching to execute the perfect physical technique, and using the guts, drive and determination to push you through the final 10m of the race when pain is searing through every inch of your body.

You cross the line, touch the wall or stick the landing to the best standard you could ever imagine. You turn around, check the scoreboard, and that lifetime of work is condensed down into a bright shining No2. Wow, you think, I've just won a silver medal at the Olympic Games, all of my work has paid off! You receive your medal, it's heavy, it's real, and it's yours, forever! A victory lap is completed where yes, most of the attention is paid to the gold medallist, but they wouldn't be there without you. Still buzzing, you make your way through the mixed zone of media to what you expect to be more praise and excitement. Then, you're stopped dead in your tracks …

"How does it feel to have lost the gold medal?" "How does it feel to be so close, but yet so far?" And the most gut-wrenching question of all: "You must be disappointed?"

Your head does a spin. Here you are, soaking up the most magnificent performance of your career, a career that you chose to do purely for the love of sport, and someone is telling you that you should be disappointed?

They call it winning a silver medal, because that is exactly what it is: winning. They only give out three medals per event. You have one day to bring your A-game, put your career on the line, and execute the best performance you can to grab one of those medals. That is why claiming a silver or a bronze medal takes winning.

Now, I can comment only on what I have been able to observe from down here in Australia but I am sick and tired of athletes being almost forced into disappointment at not winning gold. All of the headlines are the same: "Seebohm falls short" (silver medal in the women's 100m backstroke), "Ginn faces defeat" (silver medal in the men's four rowing), "Magnussen sinks" (silver medal in the men's 100m freestyle).

Australia, as of now, sit 19th on the medal table with two gold, 12 silver and eight bronze medals. I will admit, based on our past Olympic performances, this is a low standing. But let's look into why this may be: John Coates, the president of the Australian Olympic Committee, blames the athletes' failure (there's that terrible word again) on a decline in government funding along with decreased participation in compulsory school sport. Kevin Gosper, as Australia's most senior member of the IOC, supports this, and adds that our coaches need to be paid more so they can dedicate themselves solely to athlete performance.

Even our coaches aren't free from criticism, with one headline on Tuesday reading: "Aussie coaches win gold! (for another country)". Australian coaches are offered big money to take on international athletes. They can't refuse an increase in money when it means they will also be able to provide for their national athletes better. Australia put on one of the best Olympic Games the world has ever seen only 12 years ago, and was a sporting world super power – can Great Britain expect to be in our position come 2024? Here's hoping not.

The reason athletes themselves feel disappointed with a silver medal is the enormous amount of pressure placed on them to perform. This pressure comes from many places but, mostly, it comes from within; they just don't want to let anyone down. In the lead-up to an Olympic Games, so much media hype swirls around anyone who is even within a whisper of a gold medal. By the time that athlete gets to race day the expectations of the country are on their shoulders; if they fall short the entire country will be in shock.

Also swirling around in the athlete's head are the sacrifices their family has made to get them to this point. With the minimal funding that is received by all amateur sports across Australia, and the world, it is rare for athletes to find themselves in a position where they can dedicate all of their time to their sport. Most hold down a job in between the six hours of training they complete each day.

More often than not, it is your family which pays for your trips away, helps you with training fees and pays for physio and massage appointments to keep your body functioning. They pay for any competition equipment you may need to put you on par with anyone else in the world, they even cook meals for you when you know that the time and money you have just won't be enough to provide yourself with adequate nutrition.

Your family will always be proud, and no matter the colour of the medal, or the placing beyond that, they will hold you close and congratulate you with the best form of words they can get out without crying with joy! But you want to win the gold for them, as much as you do for yourself – and when you get silver, you do have momentary feelings of disappointment at letting your family down, even though you know you never could.

An increase in funding would allow an athlete to train, rest, and train again, without having to worry about how they are going to pay the next bill. They could exclude the pressures of performing for others, and just perform for themselves, hence bringing back the winning part of a silver medal.

So to all of this I say, let's rally together and increase funding for athletes, worldwide, so they can do what they have always dreamt to do. Let's congratulate their families for every single moment of their lives that have been dedicated towards their children's success … and let's raise our glasses to every single silver and bronze medallist at this Olympics, as well as at previous and future Games.

You have done yourselves proud, you have done your families proud and you always do your countries proud, simply by wearing your team tracksuit. Congratulations, you won!